Method of packing pile fabric and package resulting therefrom



P. R. BAILEY Jan. 7, 1969l METHOD 0F PACKING' PILE FABRIC AND PACKAGE RESULTING THEREFR'OM Filed March 13, 1967 Sheet NVENTOR PETER RBAILEY MMV/5W ATTORNEYS.

Jan.7,1969 `P,R,BA EY '3,420,365

METHOD OF PACKING PILE FABRIC AND PACKAGE RESULTING THBREFROM Filed March l5, 1967 Shee'rl 3 of 3 INvENToR PETER R. BAlLEY www ATTORNEYS Jan. 7, 1969 P. R. BAILEY 3,420,365

METHOD OF PACKING PILE FABRIC AND PACKAGE RESULTING THEREFROM Filed March 13, 1967 sheet 3 of s INVENTOR PETER R. BAILEY BYMYWM/ ATTORNEYS.

United States Patent O 3,420,365 METHOD OF PACKING PILE FABRIC AND PACKAGE RESULTING THEREFROM Peter R. Bailey, 953 Orpha St., Burlington, Ontario, Canada Filed Mar. 13, 1967, Ser. No. 622,809 Claims priority, applictionzanada, Mar. 21, 1966,

U.s. ci. 20s- 59 13 Claims 1m. el. Bash 55/00; Bash 11/00 ABSTRACT OF THE DISCLOSURE Background of the invention This invention relates to pile fabric package and a method of packing pile fabric, and more particularly to a method of packing elongated sheets of pile fabric for transport from a producer of such fabric to users or retailers of such fabric.

In packing pile fabric for transport it is important that the fabric be packed in such a way that the surface of the pile, which is the decorative surface of the pile fabric, not be subjected to any pressure. Otherwise, the pile tends to -be crushed or flattened with the result that a good Ideal of its decorative or ornamental appearance is lost. Therefore, the pile fabric may not simply be rolled into cylindrical packages as the surface of the pile would be in contact with the back of the pile fabric (the nondecorative surface) resulting in crushing of the pile during transport.

In order to protect the pile from being crushed or flattened during transport, it is the practice to hang the fabric on racks especially designed for this purpose. These racks consist of an upright standard with regularly spaced arms ra-diating from the upper and lower ends thereof. Usually the arms are 'four in number and are provided with hooks which are adapted to retain the edge of the pile fabric. The hooks are spaced longitudinally of the radially disposed arms and the upper and lower edges of one end of the pile fabric are secured to the innermost hooks on corresponding upper and lower arms. The fabric is then wound around in spiral fashion with the upper and lower edges being secured at corresponding points by the appropriate hooks on the respective upper and lower arms. The hooks are so ydisposed that the pile fabric is coiled in a loose spiral configuration with a space between the surface of the pile and the back of the pile fabric forming the next adjacent loop in the spiral.

Sheets of the pile fabric transported in this manner may run, for example, 25 to 30 yards in length and have a width of 48 to 60 inches. The sheets of the pile fabric may therefore be quite heavy and, as a result, the racks are very sturdily built and are usually constructed of heavy gauge sheet metal. Therefore the rack itself is quite heavy and also quite expensive with the result that empty racks in the possession of a user or retailer of the pile fabric must be stored and ultimately returned to the manufacturer for reuse. The extra weight of the rack adds to the cost of transporting pile fabric and the necessity 3,420,365 Patented Jan. '7, 1969 ICC of storing and returning the empty racks further increases the cost of transport and also increases the handling and storage costs of 4both the producer and the user or retailer.

Summary of the invention The -disadvantages in known methods of packing pile fabrics may be largely eliminated by releasably securing the back of the pile fabric to one side of a flexible support having an area slightly greater than that of the pile fabric, securing to the same side of the flexible support, Iand on opposite sides of the pile fabric, a spacer of thickness greater than that of the pile fabric, and then rolling the support upon itself with the spacer and the pile fabric directed inwardly of the roll whereby to maintain the surface of the pile in spaced relationship to the other side of the support.

In a preferred form of the invention the flexible support is a single backed sheet of corrugated paperboard having pressure sensitive adhesive applied to its crown or corrugated side. The corrugations are disposed transversely of the longitudinal dimension of the sheet of pile fabric which is to be packed and the back of the pile fabric is laid upon the crown surface of the paperboard support with margins won either longitudinal sides thereof. Either before or after, or indeed at the same time as -the pile fabric is applied to the crown of the paperboard support, spacer members are applied to the crown of the paperboard support on either longitudinal side of the pile fabric. Both the spacers and the pile fabric will be held in place on the paperboard support by means of the pressure sensitive adhesive and the whole may be rolled into a cylindrical roll with the spacers and pile directed inwardly of the roll. The spacers, being of thickness greater than the pile fabric, and the back of the pile fabric being secured to the crown of the paperboard support, the surface of the pile is maintained in spaced relationship to the back of the paperboard support in the next adjacent layer of the roll. No pressure is therefore ever applied to the surface of the pile and the pile fabric is received by the user or retailer in as good condition as it was when first produced. The paperboard support, of course, may simply be disposed of when the pile fabric is used by the user or retailer and of course the pressure sensitive adhesive is of such a type as to permit easy separation of the pile fabric from the crown of the paperboard support.

In accordance with a further embodiment of the invention the flexible support is of plastic material, such as high impact strength polystyrene which is brought to the packaging site in the form of a rolled continuous sheet or web, and which is there corrugated by means of suitable molding rollers. This has the advantage that it is unnecessary to transport the flexible support to the packaging site and store it there in bulky corrugated form. It is also possible to corrugate the flexible support and introduce it into the packaging process in a continuous, uninterrupted manner.

Brief description of the drawings FIGURE 1 is a side elevation of a paperboard support, spacers and pile fabric prior to rolling,

FIGURE 2 is an end elevation of the components of FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 3 is a side elevation of the partially rolled components of FIGURE 1,

FIGURE 4 is a top plan view of the components of FIGURE 3,

FIGURE 5 is a schematic plan of apparatus for continuously packaging pile fabric, and

FIGURE 6 is a schematic side elevation of the apparatus of FIGURE 5.

Description of the preferred embodiments Referring now to the drawings, a flexible support 1 comprises a single backed corrugated paperboard designated generally as having a flat backed surface 2 and an unbacked crown surface 3 comprising a plurality of corrugations 4. To the crown surface, at the tops of the corrugations, is applied an adhesive 5 preferably a pressure sensitive adhesive, which will serve to secure both the spacers 6 and the back of a sheet of pile fabric 10 to the crown surface of the support. The backed surface 2 is preferably provided with a wax or plastic coating which will render it both weather resistant and resistant to adhesion with t-he adhesive 5.

By way of example, the sheets of pile fabric to be packed may be some 25 to 3() yards in length and some 48 to 60 inches in width. As best illustrated in FIGURES 2 and 4 the elongate sheets of pile fabric are placed upon the crown surface of the paperboard support directly on the adhesive 5 which has been applied to the tops of the corrugations. The corrugations 4 of the paperboard support are disposed transversely of the longitudinal dimension of the sheet of pile fabric and the paperboard support is slightly wider than the elongate sheet of pile fabric with the result that exposed areas 7 of the crown surface of the paperboard support are left on either side of the pile fabric. These exposed areas are adapted to receive the spacers `6, which in the example illustrated, are elongate paperboard strips of thickness greater than that of the pile fabric. These strips are preferably notched as at 8 to increase their flexibility.

rThe spacers 6 are secured to the crown surface on either side of the pile fabric by means of the adhevise 5 and, when the pile fabric and spacers are in place the support may be rolled as illustrated in FIGURES 3 and 4 with the pile and the spacers directed inwardly of the roll. As the spacers are of greater thickness than the pile fabric the backed surface 2 of the support will rest upon the upper surface of the spacers when rolled, and nothing will be in contact with the surface of the pile which will be housed within the space defined by the crown surface of the support, the two spacers on either side of the sheet pile fabric and the backed surface of the support in the next adjacent coil of the roll which rests upon the two spacers.

The spacers may be of any suitable flexible material capable of being rolled in the fashion illustrated in FIG- URES 3 and 4, and they may be secured to the crown surface in any suitable manner although it is preferable to employ the same adhesive as will be used to secure the pile fabric for this purpose.

A thick paperboard material which has been suitably notched to render it flexible bas been found to be both suitable and inexpensive, and for this reason has been :specifically illustrated. Similarly, any suitable flexible )material could be used as the support. However, single `backed corrugated paperboard is ideally suited as it is relatively inexpensive, light in weight, flexible and requires a minimum of adhesive for application to the tops of the corrugations of the crown surface. There is therefore not only a saving in the quantity of adhesive applied, but, additionally, the pile fabric is more readily removed since it is in line contact with Iche pressure sensitive adhesive over a relatively small total area.

In practice, the packaging of the pile fabric will probably be performed in a continuous manner. That is, a roll of single backed corrugated paperboard having pressure sensitive adhesive applied to the crown surface will be provided together with the two rolls of suitable spacer material. Between the two rolls of spacer material would be located a roll or a source of pile fabric to be packed. The paperboard support would then be withdrawn continually from the roll, the spacer material would be drawn continually from the two rolls and applied to the lateral margins of the crown surface of the paperboard support and, simultaneously, the pile fabric would be withdrawn from its source and the back would be laid upon the middle of the crown surface of the paperboard support. The combined components could thereafter be rolled in the fashion illustrated in FIGURES 3 and 4. Whether the spacers are applied to the crown surface before, after or while the pile fabric is applied is, of course, a matter of preference. It is conceivable that the spacers may be pre-secured to the crown surface so that only the pile fabric remains to be applied when the paperboard support is obtained by the prospective user.

As corrugated paperboard is relatively bulky, considerable space must be employed in the plant of a textile manufacture for the storage of sufficient quantities of the corrugated paper for use in the packaging process. It may therefore be advantageous to corrugate the flexible support material at the packaging site as part of a continuous packaging process, as this would permit the textile manufacturer to store flat, rolled web or sheet material |which would occupy considerably less storage space than the bulkier corrugated support material. A suitable flexible support material is polystyrene, preferably high impact strength polystyrene, Iwhich may be readily corrugated by passing the same through heated corrugating rollers.

FIGURES 5 and 6, in which like reference numerals are applied to corresponding elements, a continuous process for the packaging of pile fabric is schematically illustrated. A high impact polystyrene web 20 is withdrawn from a roll 21 and passes over an idler roller 22 and between heated crimping or corrugating rollers 23 and 24. The corrugated polystyrene support then passes beneath an adhesive applicator comprising an adhesive storage hopper 26 and an applicator roller 27 which are disposed diagonally to the direction of travel of the corrugated supjport as indicated by the arrow A in FIGURE 6. The roller applicator 27 picks up adhesive from the hopper 26 and spreads it over the tops or crests of the corrugations of the polystyrene support 20.

After the adhesive has been applied to the crests of the corrugated polystyrene support, spacers l6 are drawn from rolls 28 and laid along the lateral margins of the corrugated polystyrene support by passing them under rolls 29 which` press them against the adhesive-coated crests of the corrugations. After the application of the spacers 6, pile fabric 10 is lead from a source (not shown), beneath roller 31, where its back is pressed against the adhesive-coated crests of the corrugations between the spacers 6. The flexible, corrugated polystyrene support 20, with the spacer 6 and the pile fabric 10 adhesively secured thereto, is rolled upon itself as previously described to produce a rolled package 32 for shipping.

Provision may be made for cutting the web of corrugated support, material, spacers and pile fabric to produce rolled packages of convenient sizes, and it is not essential that the spacers 6 and pile fabric 10 be supplied to the support 20 in any particular order. In practice the pile fabric may be lead directly from the machine producing the same, to the adhesively coated support, in order to eliminate the necessity for intermediate storage.

What I claim as my invention is:

`1. A method of packing a sheet of pile fabric comprising, releasably securing the back of the pile fabric to one side of a flexible support of dimensions greater than that of the pile fabric to be packed, securing to said one side of the support, on opposite sides of the pile fabric, a flexible spacer of thickness greater than that of the pile fabric, and rolling said support upon itself with the spacers and pile directed inwardly of the roll whereby to maintain the surface of the pile in spaced relationship to the other side of said support.

2. A method of packing an elongated sheet of pile fabric comprising, releasably securing the back of the pile fabric to the crown of a single backed flexible, corrugated paperboard support having a length at least as great as the length of the sheet of pile fabric, having a width greater than that of the pile fabric, and having its corrugations transverse to the longitudinal dimension of the pile fabric, securing to the corrugated side of said paperboard support, on either side of said pile fabric, a flexible spacer of thickness greater than that of said pile fabric, and rolling said paperboard support upon itself with the spacers and pile directed inwardly of the roll whereby to maintain the surface of the pile in spaced relationship to the back of said paperboard support.

3. A method as defined in claim 2 wherein the back of the pile fabric is adhesively secured to the crown surface of the paperboard support.

4. A method as defined in claim 3' wherein the flexible spacers are adhesively secured to the crown surface of the paper board support.

5. A method of packing an elongated sheet of pile fabric comprising, applying a pressure sensitive adhesive to the crown surface of a single backed, flexible, corrugated paperboard support, having a length at least as great as the length of the sheet of pile fabric to be packed, having a width greater than that of the sheet of pile fabric to be packed, and havin-g its corrugations disposed transversely to the longitudinal dimension of the sheet of pile fabric to be packed, adhesively securing to the crown surface of said paperboard support, a sheet of pile fabric to be packed and, on either longitudinal side thereof, an elongate ilexible spacer of thickness greater than that of the sheet of pile fabric and having a length at least as great as that of the sheet of pile fabric, and rolling said paperboard support upon itself with the spacers and pile directed inwardly of the roll whereby to maintain the surface of the pile in spaced relationship to the |back of said paperboard support.

`6. A method of packing an elongated sheet of pile fabric comprising, withdrawing a flat sheet of polystyrene from a roll thereof, passing said sheet of polystyrene between a pair of crimping rolls to corrugate said sheet, applying a pressure sensitive adhesive to the stops of the corrugations on one side of said corrugated sheet, laying an elongated, flexible spacer of thickness greater than the pile fabric to be packed upon said pressure sensitive adhesive and along each lateral edge of said corrugated sheet, laying the back of an elongated sheet of pile fabric upon said pressure sensitive adhesive between said spacers, and rolling said corrugated sheet upon itself with the spacers and pile directed inwardly of the roll whereby to maintain the surface of the pile in spaced relationship to the other side of said corrugated sheet.

7. A rolled package of pile fabric comprising a`rolled flexible support, an elongate sheet of pile fabric having its back releasably secured to the surface of said flexible support directed toward the interior of the roll and having its lateral edges disposed inwardly of the lateral edges of said flexible support, and spacing means secured to said flexible support adjacent said lateral edges whereby to maintain the surface of the pile in spaced relationship to that surface of the flexible support directed toward the exterior of the roll.

8. A rolled package as defined in claim 7 wherein said elongate flexible support is a single backed sheet of corrugated paperboard 'having its corrugations disposed transversely to its longitudinal dimension and directed toward the interior of said roll.

9. A rolled package of pile fabric as defined in claim 8 wherein the crown surface of said single backed corrugated paperboard is provided with pressure sensitive adhesive on at least the top of the corrugations.

10. A rolled packaged of pile fabric as defined in claim 9 wherein the back of said sheet of pile fabric is adhesively secured to the crown surface of said corrugated paperboard.

11. A rolled package of pile fabric as defined in claim 10 wherein said spacing means comprise elongate strips of flexible material having a thickness greater than that of the sheet of pile fabric and being adhesively secured to the crown surface of said corrugated paperboard.

12. A rolled package of pile fabric as defined in claim 11 wherein said spacing means comprise elongate strips of paper board material having one surface notched to increase flexibility.

13. A rolled package of pile fabric as defined in claim 7 wherein said elongate flexible support is corrugated, high impact strength, polystyrene.

References Cited UNITED STATES PATENTS 1,973,114 9/1934 Sherman 206-59 X 2,744,624 5/ 1956 Hoogstoel et al. 2,811,248 10/1957 Hill et al. 206-51 3,113,670 12/1963 Witting 206--59 MARTHA L. RICE, Primary Examiner.

U.S. Cl. X.R. 53-32; 206-51 

